I work in the alarm industry. $9/month is hella cheap. Industry standard is $30-$45/month on a 3-year contract, plus initial equipment and installation costs. Check out adt's website and use their system configurator to price out how expensive the major alarm companies are.

Make sure that you don't attempt this unless you are for sure out of contract with your monitoring company. Most of the time your monitoring company owns your alarm equipment and if you cancel your service you are obligated to give it back or pay for it (quite expensive for even mediocre equipment).

Like quickndirty said, paying even $30/month to protect your property (electronics, jewelery, etc) is worth it considering the value you are protecting (not to mention 10-20% off your homeowners insurance). But if the same service can be had for cheaper, great. I could post a list of the discounts that different insurance companies give for having an alarm if anyone is interested. The minimum I've encountered is 10% off. If you have an expensive home, often having a monitored system will end up saving you money (10% off of $1500/year policy will more than pay for a year of monitoring at $9/month)

As for the peeps who claim that they will buy an "as seen on TV" product for $10 or feed a dog $25 of food a month to be their security system: quit being such a bloody cheapskate. Of course protecting your posessions is important, but a good security system is also used for fire, carbon monoxide, and intruder protection. If the safety of your wife and kids is something you value, fork out a few dollars. Even if it is just to make your wife "feel" safer. At $9/month you will kick your own crotch if something were to ever happen to your family because you decided it was too expensive. I did a system about 2 years ago for a guy who came home to his wife tied to a chair about to be raped and he was stabbed in the neck by the intruder and nearly died. Doesn't happen to everyone, but make sure it doesn't happen to you.

TheDude said:quickNdirty said:fatcool said:How much your net worth has to be to consider for paying that much for an Alarm system.

Why not buy the As on seen on TV 10$ product and hook up all over your gardens and windows.

LOL. What kind of question is that??

Let's see. I have about 10k worth of TV's, 8k worth of musical instruments, 2k worth of home theater gear, 4k worth of computers, probably 6-7k worth of jewelry, etc etc. I also have the smoke detectors for my $240,000 home wired in to my monitored alarm system, to hopefully get the trucks rolling a few minutes faster- I do get a decent discount on my homeowners insurance due to having all of this on a monitored system.

But, I don't think i'd trust the same results from a "as seen on TV" $10 product.

I'm also on ADT, paying $30 a month, and even at that price, it's worth it- but I'd much rather pay less. Thx OP!

QnDLet's see - I pay my insurance premium. If I'm ripped off of my goods I'm covered. What I primarily look at a home alarm system for is to protect the persons in the house. I have a more restful night sleep knowing that the alarm system is protecting us from anything that goes bump in the night.

You're covered 100% for loss of personal property? Do you have photographs and serial numbers of everything you own locked away somewhere (if you're hoping to get reimbursed you'd better) Even so, if you do have 100% coverage, you're getting shafted on your ins. premiums I'd bet.

As far as protection, I don't need a "monitored" alarm system for that. Just one to make noise. The 9mm and police issue 12ga mossburg under the bed have me covered once I'm awake

castcore said:Just like some people a couple months back wanted to be cheap on buying store night guards instead of custom fitted ones. I don't think you want to go cheap on an alarm system here.

From what I read, you get the same monitoring service from AlarmNext or other of these national monitoring services or ADT. It is all the same, the alarm is triggered, they get notified, they call you, they call the police, they call your contact list. So quality of monitoring is not the issue.

The downside of using a 3rd party monitoring company is servicing of the alarm. If the battery dies and the alarm needs to be re-programmed, they can't send out a technition like your local ADT dealer can. So if you can live with self service of the alarm or paying someone for maintenance (which you have to do anyway if your alarm is out of warranty) than 3rd party monitoring should be fine.

If you're so worried about what happens if the power goes out or a cable is cut you can bury the cable TV feed if you're using a cable modem and for that matter the telephone as well if you're using DSL and it won't be easily cut without doing some climbing up a pole or getting into the basement or under house area.

I buried my electricity and TV and phone cables 25 years or more ago when I had an above ground pool that had my electric drop going over it. Never been sorry for doing so.

For that matter, how many people have securely locked their electric panel if you're in an area of relatively mild climate and have outside electric panels and meters?

I was in charge of on campus computing for several years at a community college and I refused to assume any responsibility for theft unless the school paid for alarm systems for all the computer rooms...more than a dozen rooms at that time and quite a bit more now, 10 years later. I had a backup system installed as part of that which was battery operated and used a radiio link to the alarm company if the phone link didn't test OK.

Before I did that we had some computer thefts when PC systems were $2K+ and Macs that we had were $3K+. It didn't take many thefts to more than pay for the monitoring fees since we were self-insured up to something like $10K. I must admit though I didn't enjoy being called at home at 1 AM when the monitoring company did a scan and found a room with the alarm not activated because a part time teacher or custodian didn't properly arm the system when they left sometime after 10 PM.

You can only do so much and your pocket book and cost of what you're protecting is the limiting factor.

RBA said:If your house is worth robbing, wouldn't the theif be smart enough to cut the cable going into your house/cable modem? Or does that trigger an alarm too?

If your system is installed properly, the subject should not be able to locate your real cable. If it's not properly installed or the subject is lucky enough to find it, cutting the wire should trigger a trouble alarm rather than an entry alarm.

I am in the market for an alarm system. However, my wife and I disagree on the level of security needed. I think that a monitored system is probably overkill and that installing a security system with a very loud "indoor" alarm would probably scare most if not all would be burglars. My wife thinks the monitored system is the way to go. Of course, she will get her way, as she generally does. But do you all think that a monitored system is really worth it?

RBA said:If your house is worth robbing, wouldn't the theif be smart enough to cut the cable going into your house/cable modem? Or does that trigger an alarm too?

Most systems have a local alarm siren. This works even if the phone line is cut.

Some mid-range alarm systems have dead-phone-line detectors that trigger the local alarm siren if the phone wires are cut.

High end alarm systems, as you might find in rich folks houses and upscale businesses, have a cell phone backup. A dedicated cell phone gadget is attached to the alarm panel and duplicates the alarm call on the cellular unit. This is an example of this equipment:

Info link for cellular alarm backup

.

Any others places to compare besides nextalarm and SmartHome?


nextalarm doesn't list by alarm brand even though it is a major brand

SmartHome is just a front for Alarm Relay
"By teaming with Alarm Relay, a nationwide provider of professional alarm monitoring services"

and charges $35 setup, $8.95 but pay year in advance (no refunds)

Thanks OP for starting the thread and others for the feedback. Very informative. I had a local company called digital interiors setup my alarm system and after a year of monitoring they transferred me to SMS. I pay about $26 a month. While I do I like the service I don't mind saving few bucks provided I don't compromise on service. I guess, I will call the guys OP mentioned and get more info. Lets hope we get more feedback from other users.

Little off topic and probably a stupid question...but if for some reason your alarm goes off and they can't get a hold of me (say I'm in a meeting), and they do call the police, do I get charged for a false alarm? I would think so...that is why we pay taxes, but just wondering.